2023 Volume 59 Issue 1 Pages 19-28
This paper will focus on water resources in the local community, and clarify how to use public wells to rebuild relationships at edge of wells from the perspective of environmental sociology. This paper presents a case study of the public well policy in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture. The findings of this paper are as follows: (1) to create public wells with multifaceted functions that involve various local residents, rather than a single function such as fetching water or wells for preventing disasters; (2) to focus on the meaning that local residents attach to public wells as a place for the local community, rather than the value of water as a resource. Then, local residents will have ownership consciousness of public wells as their commons. The concept of public wells is as a resource for all people. This may seem like a good concept, but the flip side is that it belongs to no one. Public wells that are not managed by local residents and is not their commons is value-neutral and likely to be unattractive for all people. Public wells as commons for local residents have the potential to rebuild relationships among people.
